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1875 
Copy 1 









KEPOBT OF THE COMMISSIONERS 



ON 



Proposals forSites &. Plans forBuildings 



m, 



FOR THE 



Deaf and Dumb, the Blind, and the Feeble-Minded, 



IN THE 



STATE OF NEW JERSEY, 



For the Year 1874-5. 



NEWARK, N. J.: 

NEWARK DAILY JOURNAL — W. B. GUILD, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER. 

1875. 




m 



k. 



EEPOKT OF THE COMMISSIONERS 



ON 



Proposals for Sites & Plans forBuildings 



FOR THE 



Deaf and Dumb, the Blind, and the Feeble-Minded, 



IN THE 



STATE OF NEW JERSEY. 



For the Year 1874-5. 




NEWAEK, N. J.: 

NEWARK DAILY JOURNAL — W. B. GUILD, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER. 

1875. 



v 

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ACT FORMING COMMISSION. 

An Act to Provide for the Education of the Deaf and 
Dumb, the Blind, and the Feeble-Minded in this 
State. 

Whereas, the commissioners heretofore appointed by the governor 
have reported that there exists at present, within the state, no 
schools adequate for imparting education to the pupils who are 
either deaf and dumb, blind, or feeble-minded, and that there are, 
at the present time, at least one hundred and fifty deaf and 
dumb, one hundred blind, and one hundred feeble-minded pupils 
who would gladly avail themselves of such facilities as the state 
might provide ; and whereas, it is the duty of the state to edu- 
cate these, her unfortunate children ; 

1. Be it enacted, by the Senate and General Assembly of the 
State of New Jersey, That Charles D. Deshler, Jeremiah Baker, 
William S. Yard, Charles D. Henclrickson, Ralph B. Gowdy, and 
Elclridge Mix be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners to 
advertise for and receive proposals for sites, that is to say, for a site 
upon which to erect suitable buildings in which to board and 
instruct pupils who are deaf and dumb, which site shall contain not 
less than twenty acres of ground ; for a site upon which to erect 
suitable buildings in which to board and educate pupils who are 
blind, which site shall contain not less than five acres of ground ; 
for a site upon which to erect suitable buildings in which to board 
and educate pupils who are feeble-minded, which site shall contain 
not less than fifty acres ; that all these sites shall be remote from 
malarial influences, capable of complete drainage and of securing 
thereon an abundant supply of sweet, soft water ; which proposals 
shall name the lowest price at which the land will be sold to the 
state — giving to the state an option to purchase the same, at the 
price named, at any time before the first day of April, eighteen 
hundred and seventy-five. 

2. And be it enacted. That said commissioners may procure from 
competent experts plans for the several buildings in which may be 
boarded and educated one hundred and fifty deaf and dumb pupils, 
one hundred blind, and one hundred feeble-minded, with all con- 



venient and proper appliances for their comfort, instruction, and 
preservation of health ; and for the accommodation of the officers, 
teachers, and assistants ; which buildings shall be, when constructed, 
of durable material, and shall be limited in cost as follows : that 
for the deaf aud dumb not to exceed one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars ; that for the blind not to exceed one hundred thousand 
dollars ; and that for the feeble-minded not to exceed eighty thou- 
sand dollars. 

3. And he it enacted, That the said commissioners shall report, 
with their opinions thereon, the proposals and plans they may 
receive under this act to the governor, to be by him laid before the 
next legislature. 

4. And he it enacted, That to defray the entire expenses which 
the said commissioners may incur under this act, the sum of two 
thousand dollars is hereby appropriated, to be drawn from the 
treasury only upon proper detailed vouchers, signed by the com- 
missioners, and audited and certified by the comptroller. 

Approved March 27, 18 74. 



REPORT 



To His Excellency Joseph D. Beetle, Governor of the State of New 

Jersey : 

Sir : The undersigned, commissioners appointed by an act of the 
legislature of 1874, entitled "An act to provide for the education 
of the deaf and dumb, the blind, and the feeble-minded, in this 
State," approved March 27th, 1874, (a copy of which is hereto an- 
nexed,) respectfully submit the following report : 

The honor in the State of New Jersey of the first step in the 
humane inquiry, which has for its object the adequate care and 
education of the unfortunate classes above named, is due to the 
legislature of 1873, which, in response to a petition of the Synod of 
New Jersey, of the Presbyterian Church, asking that " immediate 
action be taken for the founding and proper administration of an 
asylum for the benefit of deaf mutes," passed an act, approved 
March 31th, 1873, entitled "An act for the appointment of commis- 
sioners to examine into the condition," not only of deaf mutes, but 
of " the deaf and dumb, blind, and feeble-minded inhabitants of 
this State." 

The report of the commissioners appointed by virtue of this last 
mentioned act was made to the legislature of 1874, and embraced 
the following particulars : (1) the condition of these classes in this 
State ; (2) their number ; (3) the feasibility of building an institution 
or institutions for them ; and (4) the bringing together in a compact 
view a large mass of information, derived from persons of great ex- 
perience engaged in the care and education of these classes, com- 
prising particulars as to the co-education of the deaf and dumb, the 
blind, and the feeble-minded, or any of them ; the requisites for 
for sites for institutions intended for them ; the cost of constructing 
the necessary buildings, and of the maintenance of their inmates ; 
and much other matter of permanent value bearing upon the whole 
subject committed by the legislature to the commissioners for in- 



vestigation. The report stated that the condition of these unfortu- 
nates in our State was deplorable, and that their whole number was 
certainly not less than 2,100, and probably exceeded 2,600 ; but 
recognizing the certainty that the people of the State might be 
unable or unwilling to provide asylums for the whole of this large 
body, and for other reasons which they recited, the commissioners 
recommended that instead of asylums for the custody and mainte- 
nance of all the defectives without regard to age or unprovability, 
the State should inaugurate a system of schools for the education 
and training of so many of them, within the educable ages and sus- 
ceptible of education, as might be ready to avail of the same ; 
which schools, they suggested, would be the legitimate complement 
of our system of public schools, and should be as free to the afflicted 
classes as our common schools are to the unafflicted. The commis- 
sioners concluded their report by expressing the conviction — based 
upon a careful and prolonged canvass — that at least 150 deaf and 
dumb, 100 blind, and 100 feeble-minded, all of the educable class, 
are now ready and desirous to enter such institutions, if provided 
by the State ; and by recommending that, " on this basis, steps be 
taken to erect three separate institutions, the buildings to be so 
planned as that they may be easily enlarged from time to time, as 
our needs may require." 

The act under which the present commissioners were appointed, 
was the second step of the State of New Jersey in this honorable 
-and enlightened inquiry; and its preamble, accepting the undeni- 
able statement of the former commissioners that " there exists at 
present within the State no schools adequate for imparting educa- 
tion to pupils who are deaf and dumb, blind, or feeble-minded," 
notwithstanding that there are at the present time at least 350 of 
these several classes "who would gladly avail themselves of such 
facilities as the State might provide," placed on record the grave 
declaration of the legislature of 1874, that "it is the duty of the 
State to educate her unfortunate children" — a declaration 
which, we trust, no subsequent legislature of the State of New 
Jersey will be willing to repudiate or reverse. 

The duties which were imposed upon the undersigned commis- 
sioners, by the act appointing them, were as follows : 

1. To advertise for and receive proposals for three separate sites, 
respectively, of not less than twenty acres, five acres, and fifty 
acres, on which to erect buildings in which to board and instruct 
pupils who are deaf and dumb, blind, and feeble-minded. 

2. To procure from competent experts plans for the several 
buildings, of durable material, in which may be boarded and edu- 
cated 150 deaf and dumb, 100 blind, and 100 feeble-minded pupils, 
with all convenient and proper appliances for their comfort, instruc- 
tion, and preservation of health, and for the accommodation of the 
necessary officers, teachers, and assistants. 



3. To report the said proposals and plans, with their opinions 
thereon, to the Governor. 

Although the act appointing the commissioners was promptly 
approved by your predecessor, on the 27th of March, 1874, yet, 
from the inadvertent omission of a proviso making it take effect 
immediately, it did not go into operation until July 4th, 1874, 
thereby shortening by more than three months the time allotted to 
the commissioners for the performance of the duties confided to 
them. These duties proved so large and various, and required so 
great an amount of time for correspondence and conferences with 
experts ; for the examination and perfection of plans ; for the 
advertisement and reception of proposals, and for the visitation and 
inspection of the sites offered, that the completion of the work com- 
mitted to their charge, notwithstanding the utmost diligence, has 
been impossible at an earlier date than the present ; and for these 
reasons their report, also, has been necessarily deferred. 

CONCEKNING SITES. 

In conformity with the requirements of the act, proposals for 
■sites were advertised in two or more papers in each county in the 
State ; and in response a large number of proposals were received, 
eoming from parties resident in sixteen different counties. All the 
sites, thus offered, which combined the requisites prescribed by the 
act, have been visited either by the commissioners in a body, or by 
•committees appointed from among their number, and have been 
carefully inspected with reference to their exposure to or freedom 
from malarial influences, their susceptibility to complete drainage, 
and their command of an abundant supply of sweet soft water. All 
these proposals are herewith submitted to your Excellency. 

When considering this large mass of proposals, the commissioners 
supposed that it was not the design or the desire of the legislature 
to have each separate site described and reported upon in detail, as 
to its relative or intrinsic advantages or disadvantages. They have, 
therefore, proceeded upon the idea that, in giving their opinion 
upon them, as required by the act, they should confine their report 
specifically to those only which most completely of any embody the 
needs and requirements of the institutions proposed to be built 
upon them. Proceeding upon this construction, from the numerous 
sites offered and inspected, they have fhade a selection of the one, 
for each institution, which pre-eminently combines all the condi- 
tions prescribed in the act, and that are considered essential by 
-experts of acknowledged intelligence and experience in their several 
specialties. 

By referring to the report of the commissioners to the legislature 
of 1874, it will be perceived that among other questions one asking 
.specific information as to the requisites needed for sites, was ad- 



8 

dressed to twenty-seven superintendents and teachers of institutions 
charged with the care of the classes of unfortunates in whose inter- 
est the present inquiry is conducted. In the replies received from 
these gentlemen, there was entire unanimity upon the following 
particulars : That all these institutions should be in a rolling or un- 
dulating country, free from malarial influences, sufficiently elevated 
for sewerage and drainage, near an ample supply of water, cleared 
and exposed to the sun and air, and having some woodland. That 
institutions for the deaf and dumb, and for the blind, should be in 
or near a large town or city, because of the advantages thereby 
afforded for procuring supplies and servants, and for the sale of the 
products of the industrial departments ; and also because of the 
indispensable educational advantages to be derived from lectures, 
concerts, churches, manufactures, stores, street sights, and social 
influences and surroundings. That institutions for the feeble-minded 
should be in the country, but convenient of access to and from a 
town or city. 

In their consideration of the sites offered to them, the commis- 
sioners have held themselves strictly to the conditions laid down 
and recommended with such great unanimity by the experienced 
instructors whom they had consulted. It is proper to add that, in 
canvassing the merits of the sites offered, the commissioners also 
considered accessibility to the bulk of the population of the state to 
be a highly desirable element, though not absolutely indispensable. 

SITE FOR INSTITUTION FOR DEAF AND DUMB. 

Among the proposals sent in to the commissioners, were six from 
a committee of the Board of Aldermen of the city of New Bruns- 
wick, in conformity with a resolution of that body, passed August 
24th, 1874, and which was unanimously ratified by a largely 
attended public meeting of the citizens and tax-payers, called for 
the consideration of the subject, and presided over by the mayor of 
the city, August 3 1st, 1874. These proposals offered to present to 
the state any one of the six sites therein described, that should be 
deemed the most suitable, as a gift, free from all municipal assess- 
ments and taxes, on condition that the state would erect thereon an 
institution for the deaf and dumb. These sites — all of which were 
found to be desirable — were visited and inspected by the commis- 
sioners, on several occasions, between September 1st and October 
22d last past, comprising the period of the severe drouth of last 
autumn ; and, during the same interval, they were diligently 
engaged in visiting and examining, with special reference to an 
institution for the deaf and dumb, a number of other sites that had 
been offered in various parts of the state. After a deliberate and 
exhaustive examination and comparison of all the sites offered which 
were in any degree suitable for such an institution, the commission- 



9 

ers unanimously agreed that the site which combined, not only 
more numerous advantages than any other, but which possessed, in 
an eminent degree, all the requisites that were desired, was a tract 
offered by the city of New Brunswick, lying in the southerly part 
of the city, in the First ward, on the high bank of the Raritan, back 
of Sonman's Hill, consisting of forty-three acres and a fraction, and 
composed as follows : thirty-two and a-half acres, comprising part 
of Riverside Grove, belonging to A. D. Newell ; five and a-half 
acres, adjoining the above on the east, belonging to J. C. Carpen- 
der ; and five and a»half acres adjoining the above on the west, 
belonging to James Hurley — the cost to the city of the entire tract 
being $31,790. This tract lies between Burnet street on the east, 
and Clifton avenue on the west, and has a front of over thirteen 
hundred feet on the former, and nearly a thousand feet on the 
latter. It is about one hundred feet above the level of the Raritan 
river, and on the Burnet street front is five hundred feet distant 
from it. The plot is beautifully undulating, and is diversified with 
ravines, vales, and upland. It is in a fine state of cultivation ; has 
an abundant water supply, both natural and artificial ; and is 
enriched by noble growths of lofty forest trees, disposed at various 
points, where they are likely to be the most needful or desirable. 
So far as the commissioners were able to discover, there was nothing 
lacking in the site, either on the score of health, beauty, utility, or 
exact adaptedness to the needs of an institution for the deaf and 
dumb. These impressions of the commissioners have been since 
confirmed by experts who were invited to visit the site, and con- 
sulted as to its suitableness. One of the most distinguished and 
experienced of these, the superintendent, for many years, of a large 
and successful institution in a sister state, addressed the following 
note on the subject, to the chairman of the commission : 

"Since my very pleasant visit to your city, the- beautiful site, so 
generously donated for the uses of a deaf and dumb institution by 
your corporate authorities, has been frequently in my mind, and I 
have felt moved to write to you, congratulating your commission 
upon their good fortune in securing this Yery desirable site. Such 
a site for such an institution, would be cheap to the state, at any 
price. I regard it one of the most eligible situations that 1 have- 
ever seen anywhere ; and am unable to recall any important requi- 
site for such an institution that it does not possess. Its proximity 
to New Brunswick ; its easy accessibility to New York, on the one 
hand, and Philadelphia on the other, with its natural diversity of 
surface, accompanied with a charming and extensive prospect, all 
combine to fill the entire demands of the site of an institution for 
the education of the deaf and dumb. No institution in the country 
has a more favorable situation than yours will have." 

In addition to the advantages above recited, the citizens of New 
Brunswick have secured from the Delaware and Raritan Canal 



10 

'Company the privilege of a free dock on the bank of the Raritan, 
in front of the property, on which to erect a boat-house, whence the 
pupils will have access to the Raritan, out of the way of passing 
boats, where they may have a safe and uninterrupted course for 
physical exercise with the oar, on a sheet of water over a mile in 
length. This iseonsidered a most valuable acquisition, indispenable 
to the health and vigor of the pupils, and ministering largely to 
their enjoyment. 

The commissioners had, therefore, no hesitation in arriving at a 
unanimous determination to recommend the acceptance by the 
State of the above named site, on the conditions stated in the pro- 
posal, for the purposes of an institution for the deaf and dumb ; and 
on the 24th of October last advised the committee of the Common 
Council of New Brunswick to that effect. In response to the com- 
munication of the commissioners, the committee of Common Coun- 
cil,, under date of November 10th, 1874, wrote that they had con- 
summated a contract with the owners of the land indicated, by 
which, on that day, the several owners had executed to the munici- 
pality full title-deeds for the property, to be held in escrow pending 
the ratification of the selection made by the commissioners by the 
legislature, on which ratification the city is in turn pledged to 
convey the said property to the State. 

The commissioners earnestly recommend the legislature to accept 
the gift of this beautiful, convenient, and valuable site, and to take 
such legislative action as may be necessary to enable the citizens of 
New Brunswick to carry their generous proffer into effect. 

SITE FOR INSTITUTION FOB THE BLIND. 

At an early day, when considering the subject of a site for an 
institution for the blind, the question of the adaptability for that 
use of the " Soldiers' Children's Home," in the vicinity of Trenton, 
presented itself to the attention of the commissioners. That insti- 
tution belongs to the State, which has invested in the grounds, 
buildings, and improvements the sum of $69,000. Ilie act origi- 
nating the u Home" as a State institution and making an appropria- 
tion for its construction, was passed March 7th, 1806, and contem- 
plated the termination of its use for present purposes in ten years 
from that date, as did also the act of April 1st, 1869, appropriating 
two thousand dollars per year " for seven successive years " from' 
the last mentioned date, to pay the wages of teachers, etc. Both 
these acts, and the original application for its establishment, esti- 
mated the period of the existence of the " Home " at ten years, and 
assumed that it would terminate in 1876. Whether this expecta- 
tiop will be realized, we are unable to foretell. In their last report 
the managers of the Home state that " the number of children is 
now materially diminished ; the average number, from being at 



11 

one time two hundred and twenty, is now one hundred and fifty- 
three " — of whom, we may add, one hundred and eight are derived 
from six counties only, the remaining forty-five being drawn from 
the fifteen other counties of the State. The " Home " reached its 
maximum in 1870, at the close of which the number of children 
remaining in it was two hundred and twenty ; at the close of 1871 
the number was reduced to two hundred and nine ; in 1872, to one 
hundred and ninety-five ; and at the present time to one hundred 
and fifty. As a residence in the " Home " terminates upon the 
children attaining the age of fifteen, and as there are scarcely any 
new admissions to it, (none are reported by the managers for the 
past year,) there can be little doubt that, even if the legislature 
should decide to extend its existence for a time, the institution will 
expire from natural causes in the course of a very few years. The 
commissioners would deplore the use of any means to hasten this 
result, and trust the state will continue its fostering care and pro- 
tection of the children of our soldiers as long as they are needed. 
Yet we have felt it to be our duty not to ignore the not distant 
event of the close of the " Home." The commissioners, therefore, 
employed an architect to examine the buildings with a view to 
their utilization as a part of an institution for the blind ; and find- 
ing that this was feasible, they had plans prepared, embodying the 
necessary alterations and additions, which will be more fully re- 
ferred to elsewhere in this report. They came the more readily to 
this conclusion, since the site — which consists of seven acres of land, 
upon two of which is a fine grove — is amply sufficient for the needs 
of an institution for the blind, and is delightfully situated in a 
healthy and airy location, about fifteen minutes' walk from the 
railroad station in Trenton. No more desirable site for such an 
institution has been brought to the notice of the commissioners, 
and they recommend that as soon as, in the opinion of the legisla- 
ture, the present objects of the "Home" shall have been accom- 
lished, it shall be applied to the uses of an institution for the blind, 
in conformity with the plans hereinafter described. 

SITE FOR AN INSTITUTION FOR THE FEEBLE-MINDED. 

After a long and careful examination and survey of a large num- 
ber of sites in different parts of the state, with special reference to 
an institution for the feeble-minded, the commissioners have unani- 
mously arrived at the conclusion that the one which combines 
more fully than any other all the needs and requirements of such 
an institution, is a tract of land about three-quarters of a mile from 
Bordentown, extending from Ward avenue on the south to the 
Public road from Bordentown to Crosswicks on the north, having 
a front on each of over two thousand feet, and consisting of one 
hundred and twenty-five acres, the property of William S. Herbert, 



12 

and of twenty-five acres, the property of Antone Kline — being one 
hundred and fifty acres in all. The tract is cut up into fields of ten 
acres, and is a parallelogram ; the soil is excellent, and in a fine 
state of cultivation ; on the property is a pear nursery of five hun- 
dred trees, a peach orchard of one thousand trees, and an apple 
orchard of six acres, all in full bearing ; besides a conservatory of 
plants and flowers. The farm houses, which comprise a comfort- 
able dwelling house for a farmer, capacious barns, stable, and out- 
houses, are in excellent condition, and are located precisely where 
they will be needed, on the northerly portion of the tract. The 
fencing is exceptionally good. The site is one mile from the Dela- 
ware river, a short distance from the well known Joseph Bonaparte 
grounds, and has an elevation of one hundred and ninety feet above 
tide water of the Delaware — affording a fine and extensive prospect 
for many miles on every side. It is capable of complete drainage, 
either into the Delaware or Crosswicks Creek; and the right of 
way for such drainage is guaranteed to the state in writing. The 
land composing the site slopes gradually from the fronts on Ward 
avenue and on the Public road to Crosswicks, to a point very nearly 
in the centre of the tract, where the property is traversed from east 
to w T est by an abundant and never-failing stream of pure soft water, 
fed from lining springs, from which it was formerly proposed to 
supply the city of Bordentown with water; and from ponds fed by 
which the city now obtains its annual supply of ice. The commis- 
sioners have secured from the owners of the several properties, on 
which the springs have their rise that are the sources of this stream, 
and through which it passes before reaching the tract, a guarantee 
in writing, herewith presented, that the said stream shall not be 
diverted, contaminated by any means, or lessened in volume, and 
engaging to execute papers which shall secure these conditions to 
the state. The portion of the tract most eligible for the buildings 
for an institution fronts on Ward avenue, being on the summit of 
the slope opposite to and sufficiently remote from the farm build- 
ings, which are on the summit of the slope fronting on the Public 
road to Crosswicks. The portion of the property lying on the last 
named road is about three hundred yards from the branch railroad 
from Bordentown to Amboy ; and a number of wealthy and influ- 
ential citizens of Bordentown have entered into an engagement in 
writing, which is herewith submitted, to build a switch from the 
railroad to the site at this point, which will be of great and permanent 
value to the State for the transportation of building materials, coal, 
and supplies for the institution. There is an abundance of gravel 
and of good brick clay on the place. 

The size of the tract is larger than the minimum named in the 
act — "not less than fifty acres" — but it is not larger than will be 
advantageous, and even necessary, since the chief and almost the 
sole occupation to which the feeble-minded can be trained,, and the 



13 

one which is absolutely essential to their physical well-being, is out- 
of-door farm work. While they are being indurated in health, and 
trained to habits of self-support, as cultivation of the soil, they will, 
at the same time, become contributors to the food supply of the 
institution, and thus materially lessen its current annual expenses. 
Finally, the tract is situated in an elevated and salubrious locality ; 
is surrounded by a rolling country, is susceptible of perfect drainage 
into tide-water streams, and combines every advantage of being in 
the country, though adjacent to a city, together with easy and 
frequent means of communication to and from all parts of the state. 
The cost of the entire tract of one hundred and fifty acres, as 
above described, is $18,500, with the option to the state at that 
price till April 1st, 1875. The commissioners unanimously and 
earnestly recommend the legislature to secure this eminently appro- 
priate site, at the price, on the conditions, and with the guarantees 
above recited. 

PLANS FOR BUILDINGS. 

The provision of the act making it the duty of the commissioners 
to procure from " competent experts" plans for the several buildings 
required for the care and education of the classes specified in the 
act, was prompted by practical good sense. No mere architect, 
however accomplished, could understand the complex and peculiar 
needs of such institutions, in all their infinity of detail and with ref- 
erence to their administrative, educational, and industrial require- 
ments. None but experienced specialists could be experimentally 
familiar with the diversified requisites essential to the comfort, con- 
venience, and efficient instruction of the peculiarly exceptional 
classes for whom such institutions are designed. Not even the 
specialist whose life has been devoted to the observation and instruc- 
tion of the deaf and dumb, could be safely entrusted with the 
designing of an institution for the blind or the feeble-minded. And 
the converse is equally true. The characters of the several classes 
of defectives; the modes of instruction ; the nature of the defect to 
be remedied, alleviated, or substituted for — these, and many other 
features, are essentially, and, in some respects, diametrically diverse. 
Information, to be valuable, must be derived, in each branch, almost 
exclusively from those who are most intimately acquainted with all 
its needs and requirements. 

Acting upon this judicious provision, immediately upon the act 
going into effect, the commissioners addressed the leading educators 
of the deaf and dumb, the blind, and the feeble-minded in the 
United States and England, requesting each, in his several specialty, 
to furnish outlines, ground-plans, etc., of the proposed institutions, 
which should combine the results of the most advanced experience, 
and cover all the requisites for the comfort, health, and instruction 
of the pupils, together with accommodations for the officers, teach- 



14 

ers, and assistants — the whole to be drawn to a scale, and the 
several parts and details so denoted as that non-specialists might 
readily comprehend them., or an architect rise them as a guide in 
preparing his working plans. In response to these requests, plans 
were received from a large number of gentlemen, tracings of which 
were made and interchanged among them for examination, criti- 
cism, revision, or amendment, with the object in view of securing 
such a "harmony" of the various plans upon essential particulars 
as would at once embody the results of the largest and most 
approved experience, and protect the State from the perpetuation 
of venerable errors. For their prompt and cordial responses to our 
appeal for plans and information, for the active interest they have 
taken in the inquiry, for the sacrifice of time and liberal contribu- 
tions of labor, and for their disinterested assistance, the commis- 
sioners feel under special obligations, which they take this opportu- 
nity gratefully to acknowledge, to the following distinguished 
educators : E. M. Gallandet, LL. D., of Washington, D. C. ; Win. 
H. Churchman, M. A., Indianapolis, Ind. ; Isaac L. Peet, LL. D., 
New York city ; Philip G. Gillett, LL. D., Jacksonville, 111. ; Dr. 
Asa D. Lord, Batavia, N. Y. ; Mr. G. O. Fay, Columbus, O. : Isaac 
N. Kerlin, M. D., Media, Pa. ; Mr. Yon Praagh, London, England ; 
Mr. William B. Wait, New York city ; Mr. J. A. McWnorter, 
Baton Rouge, La. ; W. D. Williams, M. A., Macon, Ga. ; Mr. 
Thomas H. Little, Janesville, Wis. ; Mr. Thomas Mclntire, Jack- 
sonville, 111. ; Mr. John D. Parker, Wyandotte, Kansas ; Joshua 
Rhoads, M. D., Jacksonville, 111. ; Mr. J. L. Noyes, Fairbault, 
Minn. ; and Mr. Egbert L. Bangs, Flint, Mich. 

The product of the prolonged inquiry of the commissioners, after 
a subsequent study and comparison of all the plans in the light of 
the criticisms, alterations, and improvements suggested by the 
experts consulted, is the accompanying perfected outline plans, 
marked respectively, "Plan for an Institution for the Deaf and 
Dumb," " Plan for an Institution for the Blind," and " Plan for an 
Institution for the Feeble-Minded." It will be perceived that these 
plans are not elaborated by an architect in all the minutiae of their 
details, as if intended for working plans. Even if such plans had 
been considered desirable, their cost would have been an insupera- 
ble obstacle in the way of procuring them, in view of the limited 
amount of the appropriation at the command of the commissioners, 
the whole amount of which ($2,000) would have been barely suffi- 
cient for a single plan on such a scale. But they were not deemed 
necessary at this stage ; and the plans presented are rather intended 
as an important contribution of information, embodying essential 
guiding principles and ideas as to the interior disposition and 
arrangements of the several institutions, which will be invaluable 
aids when preparing the more elaborate working plans. 

The several plans — of which full drawings have been made by 



15 

an architect, Mr. Augustus Eichorn, of Orange — are more particu- 
larly described as follows: 

PLAN OF INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. 

The building is cruciform, with lateral wing? ; three stories in 
height, with a cellar underneath the whole. In the rear of the- 
centre building is a boiler and engine house. The entire front in- 
cluding the wings, is three hundred and twenty feet, and its depth, 
excluding boiler and engine house, is one hundred and seventy-four 
feet. Though it may be built either of stone or brick, the draw T - 
ings indicate stone as the material of the structure. The style of 
architecture is the English Gothic, which is much in use in England 
for buildings of this character. Each story is arranged for the ac- 
commodation of a separate grade of pupils, classified according to- 
their ages and advancement. Thus: the first story is designed for 
the sleeping and school rooms of those in the primary department ;. 
the second story, for those in the intermediate department ; and 
the third story for the higher classes of advanced pupils. The 
centre buildings, both front and rear, contain rooms for the officers 
and teachers ; and also those needed for the uses of all the pupils 
in common, such as an assembly room, school rooms, dining hall, 
library, museum, etc. But provision is made for the complete 
separation of the sexes, in respect to sitting rooms, play rooms, 
sleeping apartments, etc. The building will accommodate one hun- 
dred and eighty pupils (or even two hundred, if necessary,) besides 
officers, teachers and servants. The plan contemplates an increase 
of its capacity, so as to accommodate one hundred more than the 
above number, by the addition of lateral or transverse wings, as 
they may be required. 

The following are some of the main features of the building, as- 
set forth in the plan : (1) The rooms devoted to educational pur- 
poses are grouped in the centre and are in the front, occupying the 
most prominent part of the edifice, at the point of its chiefest 
dignity; while the dormitories are in the extreme wings for the 
most part, so arranged as to enjoy on all sides the most thorough 
exposure to the air and sunlight. (2) Provision is made for the 
complete separation of the sexes, except when they are under the 
immediate supervision of an officer or teacher. (3) The servants' 
department is so arranged as to secure an entire separation of the 
pupils from all contact with the employees in that department, and 
to prevent their association with them. (4) Ample provision is 
made for thorough ventilation and heating, for drainage, and for 
protection from fire. (5) Unusual facilities are afforded for the 
proper grading and classification of the pupils according to age and 
the state of their advancement in their studies. (6) While its style 
of architecture is simple, and its manner of construction plain and 



16 

substantial, its proportions are so distributed, and its different parts 
so adjusted to each other, as to make the general effect tasteful and 
imposing. 

The maximum cost of the building, at the present prices for labor 
and materials, according to the careful estimates of reliable build- 
ers, will be $180,000. 

PLAN OF INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND. 

The plan submitted embodies the building now used for the Sol- 
diers' Children's Home, and contemplates additional buildings in 
the centre, extending to the front and rear, making the structure 
cruciform, with transverse wings. It will be three stories in height, 
with a basement underneath the whole building ; and will have a 
front of two hundred and four feet, (the present front of the Soldiers' 
Children's Home,) and a depth of two hundred and forty-seven feet. 
The architecture will be in keeping with the part to be retained, 
and will incline to the pointed or Gothic style. The basement floor 
is intended for work-rooms, play-rooms, bath-rooms, and laundry 
purposes. The first floor comprises rooms and offices for the super- 
intendent and others associated with him in the management of the 
institution, work and play rooms for the different sexes, dining hall, 
gymnasium, kitchen, etc. The second story is almost wholly devoted 
to the educational department, and comprises class rooms, piano 
rooms, sewing rooms, and the private apartments of the superin- 
tendent. The third story has an assembly room in the centre 
building ; and the remainder is principally devoted to dormitories 
for pupils and teachers, and hospitals for both sexes, with the neces- 
sary appurtenances. Ample provision is made in the several parts of 
the building for speedy and easy exit in case of fire. It is proposed to 
be heated by steam, and ventilated by flues built into the walls in 
the inner part of the building. In order to do this, the inner walls 
of the present edifice must be built anew, as they are now wooden 
partitions merely. 

The aim of the commissioners in these alterations has been, to use 
the materials in the present structure to the best advantage com- 
patible with the needs of an institution for the blind ; to make the 
additions in the centre of such a character, and so ample in their 
dimensions, that lateral wings might be added, and the accommo- 
dations for additional pupils be afforded, as the necessity demands, 
without necessitating any changes in the central and main portion 
of the building ; to adapt the building in every way to the special 
needs and requirements of the blind pupils whom it is designed to 
educate, so that their care and instruction may be conducted in the 
most systematic and satisfactory manner. 

The cost of the alterations and additions proposed, at the present 
prices of labor and materials, as estimated by builders, will be 



IT 

$110,000; and it will accommodate one hundred and forty, or, if 
need be, one hundred and fifty pupils. 

PLAN OF INSTITUTION FOR THE FEEBLE-MINDED.' 

The building for this institution, when ultimately finished as per 
the plan presented herewith, will be three hundred and twenty feet 
in length, and two hundred and twenty-seven feet in depth. It 
will be cruciform, consisting of a main central edifice, with trans- 
verse wings ; and will be built of brick, faced on the front and sides 
with Trenton brick. It will have a basement entirely above 
ground, and two upper stories. The basement will be eleven feet 
high, and will contain a dining hall, kitchen, work-rooms, etc. The 
principal or first story will be fourteen feet high, and will contain 
public rooms and offices, together with dormitories and school 
rooms. The third story will be devoted to the private rooms of the 
superintendent, dormitories, and teachers' rooms. Fewer rooms 
for educational purposes are needed for this class of unfortunates 
than for the deaf and dumb and the blind ; but there must be ample 
provision for their physical care and training. It is not proposed 
by the commissioners that the whole building exhibited in the plan 
submitted shall be erected at present, but merely the centre portion 
and one wing, as indicated by the shaded drawings. The other 
wing can be added when additional accommodations shall be 
needed, when the building will present a symmetrical appearance, 
and its parts will be harmonious. For the present, and perhaps 
for years to come, the first story can be used for one sex, and the 
second story for the other. The portion of the building now pro- 
posed to be constructed, will accommodate one hundred and ten 
pupils, besides officers and teachers. The estimated cost of the 
whole building, when completed as planned, is $200,000, and it 
will accommodate two hundred and twenty pupils. But the portion 
designated by the shaded drawings, and which is all that is now 
needed, can be erected of plain and substantial materials for 
$125,000. 

The plans followed in preparing the drawings for this institution 
were furnished to the commissioners, for whom they were expressly 
prepared, by Isaac N. Kirlin, M. D., the capable superintendent of 
the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-Minded Children, at 
Media, Pennsylvania, who ranks among the most experienced and 
distinguished of the educators of this class of unfortunates in the 
United States. The commissioners have not thought it desirable to 
depart materially from the plan with which he has favored us, and 
which comprises the results of many years of experience and ob- 
servation. 

2 



18 



REMARKS. 



It will be perceived that all the buildings proposed in the plans 
submitted are cruciform in shape. The almost universal testimony 
of experts is in favor of this form as preferable to any other for 
buildings on the pile system, on the score that it is more completely 
open on all sides to air and sunlight, and is free from the chilly, 
shady, damp,, and cheerless courts, which are inseparable from the 
quadrangular or other angular forms of buildings, and have proven 
unfavorable to the health of their inmates. Sun and air are espe- 
cially needed for defectives of all kinds, because of their tendency 
to strumous or scrofulous diseases. A cruciform building, properly 
placed, will be reached by the rays of the sun in all its parts in the 
course of every day, and is exposed on every side at all times to 
the purifying and invigorating action of the air. 

It will also not escape notice that the estimated cost and capacity 
of the several buildings are somewhat in excess of the limitation 
prescribed in the act. The act prescribed that the institution for 
the deaf and dumb should accommodate one hundred and fifty 
pupils, and should cost not to exceed $150,000 ; that the institution 
for the blind should accommodate one hundred pupils, and should 
cost not to exceed $100,000 ; and that the one for the feeble- 
minded should accommodate one hundred pupils, and should cost 
not to exceed $80,000. On the other hand, the plans presented are 
for an institution for the deaf and dumb to accommodate one hun- 
dred and eighty pupils, and to cost $180,000; for an institution for 
the blind to accommodate one hundred and forty pupils, and to cost 
$110,000; and for an institution for the feeble-minded to accommo- 
date one hundred and ten pupils, and to cost $125,000. The de- 
parture from the limitation has been enforced by unavoidable arch- 
itectural necessities, growing out of the educational and other 
requirements of the several institutions, the provision for which 
must be the same, in many respects, for an institution of either 
fifty, one hundred, or two hundred pupils. Each needs the same 
amount of space for the accommodation of the superintendent, 
matron, steward, and other permanent officers. Each must have 
an assembly room, a dining hall, a kitchen, and laundry, and rooms 
for a museum, a library, and for hospitals, and a dispensary. 
Though the institutions may require to be enlarged for additional 
pupils, as the State increases in population, under the plans pre- 
sented such enlargement is practicable at a comparatively slight 
cost ; but no enlargement of the educational or administrative de- 
partments will be needed for many years, even with a largely 
increased number of inmates. The commissioners found as they 
proceeded with the plans, that a literal adherence to the limitation 
of the act in respect to the number of pupils and the cost of con- 
struction would involve a sacrifice of indispensable requisites, 



19 

defeat the important object of thoroughly adapting the buildings 
for the uses for which they are intended, and would entail at an 
early day costly and perhaps injurious alterations. It would have 
been convenient to ignore these considerations and to have under- 
estimated the outlay required, but it would have been deceitful and 
dishonest to have done so ; and therefore, the commissioners have 
frankly presented estimates which they believe to be strictly fair, 
and in each case excessive rather than the reverse. The estimate 
of the commissioners in their report of last year, which estimate 
was based upon the average cost of such institutions in the various 
States, was that plain and substantial buildings for the deaf and 
dumb, and the blind, would cost $1,000 per pupil, and a similar 
building for the feeble-minded would cost $800 per pupil. Accord 
ing to the plans now submitted, the cost of the buildings, based on 
careful and detailed estimates by a reliable architect, approximates 
very closely to the above figures ; that for the deaf and dumb being 
$1,000 per pupil, that for the blind $786 per pupil, and that for the 
feeble-minded, when the building shall be ultimately completed 
according to the plans, $909 per pupil. 

In submitting these plans to your Excellency and the legislature, 
the commissioners do not desire to be understood as conveying the 
impression that they are not susceptible of further improvement. 
While we are persuaded that the governing general principles of 
the several plans will stand the test of severe scrutiny, and need not 
be materially departed from, we are conscious that continued inquiry 
and investigation may reveal the desirability of changes or modifi- 
cations of some of the details. On this account, it would be a great 
misfortune- to bind any trustees, whom the legislature may hereafter 
entrust with the construction of either or all the institutions in 
question, to a literal adherence to the plans now submitted. They 
are presented by the commissioners as so much valuable practical 
information, gathered from persons of unusual experience in their 
several specialties, and reduced to form. We, therefore, respectfully 
recommend that a liberal discretion be permitted as to the details 
of the several plans. 

EXPENSES OF THE COMMISSION. 

The amount appropriated " to defray the entire expenses" which 
the commissioners should incur, was two thousand dollars. In 
rendering a statement of their expenditures, the commissioners take 
occasion to say that they have not retained from the sum appropri- 
ated, any compensation for their services, nor would they accept it. 
The many days, and the prolonged thought and labor they have 
given during two successive years to the unsought duties imposed 
upon them, are their contributions as citizens, toward the payment 
of the debt which the State owes to those of its helpless classes 



20 

who are made so by the visitation of God, and not by any agency 
of their own. 

The following is a statement of our expenditures, which have 
been paid by the comptroller : 

Amount of the appropriation, ...... $2,000 00 

Paid for advertising, $271 85 

" " printing, . .... 127 50 

" experts for plans, .... 250 00 

" architect for drawings, . . . 623 50 

" Secretary of State for certified copy of 

act 2 00 

" commissioners for moneys advanced for 

railroad fares, hotel expenses, con- 
veyances to visit sites, postage, ex- 
pressage, stationery, tracing paper, 
telegrams, etc., . . . . 383 53 



1,658 38 



Balance unexpended, ..... $341 62 

REFLECTIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS, ETC 

Before closing their report, the commissioners venture to present 
to the consideration of your Excellency and the legislature, some 
reflections and recommendations which are germain to the inquiry 
that has been committed to them. 

In the earlier part of this report, the commissioners recommended 
the purchase by the State of a single site, namely, that intended for 
an institution for the feeble-minded. This is the only expenditure 
for a site that will be required, if the legislature accepts the desirable 
tract offered gratuitously by the city of New Brunswick for an 
institution for the deaf and dumb ; and if it adopts the recommen- 
dation to convert the "Soldiers' Children's Home," at Trenton, into 
an institution for the blind. The total outlay required for sites for 
the three proposed institutions is, therefore, reduced to the moderate 
sum of $18,500. 

If the recommendation of the commissioners to convert the 
" Soldiers' Children's Home" to the uses of an institution for the 
blind, and the consequent temporary postponement of the establish- 
ment of the latter, is adopted by the legislature, the immediate 
provision required to be made for the care and education of our 
defective classes is reduced to an institution for the deaf and dumb, 
and an institution for the feebleminded. If a due regard be paid 
to frugality of expenditure, and if just views govern as to the proper 
character of these public buildings, it is believed that they can be 
erected for the amount specified in this report under the head of 



21 

"plans for building," or for a gross sum not materially in excess 
thereof For many reasons, chief among which are their superior 
durability, and the security of their young and helpless inmates from 
fire, the buildings should be of brick or stone, and fire-proof. But 
splendid or elaborate architectural finish, or a profusion of costly 
exterior or interior ornamentation would be superfluous elegancies. 
The first thing to consider, as was once wisely and wittily said by 
Sydney Smith is, u what it is most needful to have, what it is most 
shameful to want — shirts and stockings, before frills and collars." 
Our afflicted classes bitterly need and piteously appeal for essentials, 
not luxuries ; and these, we believe, it is within the ability of this 
prosperous and wealthy State to supply. There should be no 
unnecessary embellishments or lavish adornments in public institu- 
tions of this kind ; but they should be the most inexpensive build- 
ings possible consistent with the dignity of a State institution, and. 
should be scrupulously fitted and arranged to combine the essential 
requisites for the work for which they are designed. The noblest 
architecture in a democracy like ours, so long as its helpless and. 
rapidly-increasing defectives are unprovided for, is not that which 
appeals to the sense of the grand or the beautiful. Splendid struc- 
tures to gratify a cultivated taste, to excite admiration or wonder, to 
minister to sentiments of State pride, are infinitely less grand under 
such circumstances, and will prove far less useful and enduring, 
than plain, substantial, modest buildings, constructed "with the 
single purpose of adapting them to the uses for which they are 
designed." If these principles are held steadily in view by those 
to whom the State may confide the construction of the buildings 
needed, there will be no large departure from the estimates above 
named, unless some unlooked-for advance takes place in the cost of 
materials and labor. 

OBJECTIONS NOTED. 

There are two principal objections urged against the erection, at 
the present time, of institutions for the care and education of our 
defectives. 

The one having the largest popular currency is that our unfortu- 
nates are already adequately cared for. While the obligation of 
the State to furnish the means of education to these afflicted classes 
is fully acknowledged, it is alleged that provision is made for them 
under our existing laws in' suitable schools in other States. Unfor- 
tunately, this statement belongs to that class of illusory and obstruc- 
tive propositions known as half-truths. The real state of the case is 
that while there are certainly not less than three hundred and fifty 
educable children in the State who would avail of institutions 
within our own bounds, only a few over one-third of that number 
are in reality enjoying the benefits of schools in other States. There 

# 



22 

are numerous causes which conspire to produce this result, among 
which are the following : 

1. The ignorance, weakness, and quick apprehensiveness of many 
parents, and the solicitude and affection of others contribute to 
prevent numbers of our defective children from being sent to insti- 
tutions out of the State. It is felt that they are remote, compara- 
tively difficult of access, crowded, not subject to the inspection of 
our own authorities, and non-accountable to them for possible 
abiises or mismanagement. No children are more tenderly loved 
by parents than these afflicted ones, and there are none for whom 
the mother,, in especial, is under so constant a strain of solicitude 
and trembling anxiety. Doubtless, oftentimes this is morbid ; but 
it is nevertheless a providential adjustment that motherly love 
should burn with a more fervid heat for those who most need a 
mother's watchful care and protection. Whatever its origin, and 
however sentimental it may be in its nature, it is, notwithstanding, 
a fact which must enter into our calculations and be credited with 
its due weight. 

2. Numbers of parents are repelled from availing of the existing. 
laws for the benefit of their defective children, because those laws 
are chiefly in the interests of the indigent. The very title of the 
law — "An act for the instruction and maintenance of indigent deaf 
and dumb," etc. — is repellant. Many who are in humble, strait- 
ened, limited or moderate circumstances are thus debarred from its 
advantages. They cannot truthfully describe themselves as " indi- 
gent ;" and an honorable self-respect restrains them even from 
taking advantage of the provision by which the State offers to de- 
fray so much of the expenses of an institution as is beyond their 
means. The practical result is that our beneficiaries are principally 
derived from the indigent classes ; which fact re-acts to give to 
institutions for defectives the injurious and unjust reputation of 
being "pauper establishments," and misleads parents into the 
criminal folly of refusing to have recourse to them for their educa- 
tional and other advantages. 

It is confidently believed that if the recommendation of the com- 
missioners is accepted by the State, to make these institutions free 
schools for the education of all the defective children in the State 
who are within the educable ages, whether rich or poor, and with- 
out any humiliating conditions of admission, they will be eagerly 
availed of by the classes which are now experiencing the greatest 
deprivation and whose children are greater sufferers than those of 
any other class— namely, those who are wealthy, or whose means 
are limited or moderate. Nor only this, but it is the conviction of 
your commissioners that, in one year from the completion of the 
buildings and their readiness for the reception of pupils, they will 
be filled to the utmost capacity contemplated for them in the plans 
herewith presented. 



23 

The half-truths which proceed upon the presumption that our 
defective children are already adequately cared for in the schools 
of other States, are met by another consideration. Our children 
are only received on sufferance in many of these institutions, and 
our reliance on them may be painfully disappointed at any day. 
Already complaint has been made in the legislature of one of the 
States, whither our children are sent, that they need the room for 
their own unfortunates, who are crowded out by those from our 
State. The directors of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf 
and Dumb, at which institution we have a Dumber of children, 
have notified the State of Delaware to remove its deaf mutes ; and 
the query is a pertinent one, " When will the turn of New Jersey 
come for a like notification ? " In their last report, the directors of 
that institution expressed their regret that a large number of deaf 
mutes, residing in their own State, " were of necessity denied admis- 
sion because the buildings are already taxed to the full extent of 
their capacity." Is it to be supposed that the people of Pennsyl- 
vania will long submit to such a condition of things, or that they 
will be patient under the exclusion of their own children for the 
benefit of ours, or that they will tax themselves for the erection of 
new buildings for our accommodation ? It is scarcely reasonable 
to believe that they will do either of these things. 

The other objection which is urged in favor of postponing for the 
present the erection of buildings for these unfortunates by the State 
of New Jersey, is a financial one. It is alleged that the expense 
would be greater than the revenues of the State will warrant, and 
that the necessity is not so great as to justify direct taxation. 
Without admitting the correctness of the assertion as to the neces- 
sity not justifying taxation, the commissioners fully recognize the 
force of facts. Undeniably, it is not desirable to exceed the reve- 
nues of the State, if it can be avoided. It is equally undeniable 
that a proposition to have recourse to direct taxation would be 
received with general and cordial disfavor. 

The commissioners believe, however, that the buildings now most 
imperatively needed can be erected by the State without resorting 
to either of these unpalatable expedients. They are advised that 
there is now in the hands of the Riparian Commissioners, the notes 
of the Central Pailroad Company of New Jersey, given in liquida- 
tion of riparian claims of the State, which notes, of $100,000 each, 
fall due respectively on April 1st, 1875 ; July 1st, 1875 ; and Octo- 
ber 1st, 1875. By the act for the increase of the school fund, passed 
April 6th, 1871, it was enacted "that all moneys hereinafter 
received from the sales and rentals of the land under water belong- 
ing to this State, shall be paid over to the trustees of the school 
fund, and appropriated for the support of free public schools, and 
shall be held by them in trust for that purpose." The act further 
directs that the same shall " constitute a part of the permanent 



24 

school fund of the State, and the interest thereof be applied to the" 
support of public schools, in the mode which now is or hereafter 
may be directed by law, and to no other use or purpose whatever." 

The commissioners respectfully suggest to your Excellency and 
the legislature the wisdom and propriety of the necessary legislation 
appropriating, before they are paid into the school fund and become 
a part of its permanent capital, the proceeds of these notes as they 
fall due, or as much of them as may be necessary, for the erection 
of an institution for the deaf and dumb, and of an institution for 
the feeble-minded, or one of them. Such legislation seems to be 
expedient and equitable, for the following reasons : The intention 
of the act of April 6th, 1871 was, generally, to further the cause 
of education : in particular, through the medium of free public 
schools. While we are aware that by the "free public schools" 
referred to in that act, it was intended to designate those specifically 
so called in the " act to establish a system of public instruction" in 
this State ; and while we, therefore base no claim to the diversion 
which we suggest, upon the fact that the proposed institution for 
defectives will also most emphatically be " free public schools," we 
invite attention to the consideration that by such diversion no vio- 
lence will be done to the motive which inspired the act of 1871, 
but that it is in harmony therewith. Should the proceeds of the 
notes above named be appropriated as the commissioners suggest, 
there will be merely a diversion of the amount from one form of 
education, or public instruction, to another. Moreover, the public 
schools, which last year received from all sources the munificent 
sum of $2,304,000, and which will doubtless receive at least as 
much more during the current year, will not be sensible of a diver- 
sion of funds which they never possessed. They are not suffering 
for the amount, and will be unconscious of its loss. 

Whether the diversion that we sugpest can be legally and equi- 
tably affected by a supplement to the act of 1871, is a question that 
we are not competent to deal with, and it is respectfully referred to 
the judgment of your Excellency and the legislature. 

An allusion was made to the question which we have now raised, 
by your predecessor, Governor Parker, in his final message to the leg- 
islature. Speaking of the payment into the school fund of the proceeds 
of riparian grants and leases, he says : " The constitutional provision 
protecting that fund has been strictly obeyed. Xo part of the 
principal has been drawn therefrom, nor has any part of the interest 
been used except for school purposes. Although it is true that 
while the State is engaged in constructing large public buildings, 
the State fund needs more revenue, and that since the two mill tax 
has been levied the necessity of augmenting the school fund has 
not been so great, yet the law of 1871, above referred to, should 
not be disturbed. Should the legislature, however, think it wise to 
divert any of the riparian moneys hereafter to be received, from 



25 

permanent investment in the school fund, such moneys should be 
used only for educational purposes or for the establishment of in- 
stitutions germane thereto." Sharing these views, the commis- 
sioners respectfully invite an application of them by the legislature 
in the manner hereinbefore suggested, namely, for the establish- 
ment of institutions for defectives which shall be free public schools 
for the education and care of the deaf and dumb, the blind and the 
feeble-minded of New Jersey, for whose education there is no 
present provision within the limits or jurisdiction of the State. 

ARGUMENTS ADDUCED. 

There are several grave reasons for the establishment of these 
institutions in our State at the earliest practicable day, to which the 
commissioners invite the attention of the legislature. 

It needs no lengthened exposition to show that every uneducated 
child, whether it be a defective or otherwise, is non-productive to 
the community, in the ratio of the density of his ignorance. Who- 
ever is at the bottom of the educational scale contributes literally 
nothing to the material, intellectual, or moral welfare and pros- 
perity of the society of which he is a unit; absolutely nothing but 
his impaired and misdirected (more often than well-directed) brute 
force to the wealth, or greatness, or perpetuity of a commonwealth 
or nation. Nor is this all. While the class to which he belongs 
adds nothing to the general welfare, it is the most fertile of all 
others in those aggravated forms of social evil which are the 
reproach of civilization ; the most abundant of all in its supply of 
paupers, drunkards, incapables, and atrocious criminals, with the 
long legacy of evils, injuries and expenses, that follow in their train. 

All that is true of the uneducated classes at large in these partic- 
ulars is but a shadow of the truth as it respects uneducated defec- 
tives. These are not merely relatively, but absolutely unproduc- 
tive ; and, in addition, they are invariably a burthen — either to 
their parents or the State. By the nature of their infirmity they 
are infinitely more helpless to protect themselves, and infinitely 
more exposed to shameful outrages by the wicked, the inhuman, 
and the sensual than any others of the race, not excepting even the 
insane — outrages which degrade them to the level of the beasts, 
and which take their revenge upon the commonwealth for genera- 
tions, for the degradation which it permitted and the neglect it suf- 
fered, by a penalty of cost in woe and money that cannot be esti- 
mated. Reflect, that one single outraged, betrayed, polluted 
female of our defectives who are uneducated, irresponsible, and 
incapable of self-protection, may become (and doubtless in the past 
such an one has become), the mother of a progeny that will cost 
the commonwealth in the machinery of almshouses, prisons, courts, 
etc., a sum that might educate a thousand to a level that would 



26 

lift them out of an atmosphere of crime and degradation, into one 
of reason, conscience, intelligence, self-protection, and self-support. 
Most appositely illustrating the cost to a community of its neglect 
of its poor and unfortunate, is the now familiar statement recently 
made before the State Charities Aid Association of the State of JN"ew 
York, by Dr. Harris, of the city of New York, concerning the 
progeny of a woman in one of the counties of that State. It had 
been observed that the proportion of paupers to the whole popula- 
tion in that county was abnormal — being one in ten. A further 
investigation revealed that certain names constantly reappeared in 
the criminal and poor-house records of the county, which led to an 
inquiry that followed up the traces of those families and studied out 
their genealogies. The inquiry was pursued, in one case, over a 
period of six generations of vice, and ignorance, and misery and 
crime, with a result that was as astounding as it is full of warning 
and instruction. Says the New York Times, from which w r e copy 
a summary of Dr. Harris's statement, with some reflections of its 
own superadded : "Some seventy years ago a young girl named 
i Margaret ' was left adrift in one of these villages — it does not 
appear whether through the crime or misfortune of others. There 
w T as no almshouse in the place ; but she was a subject of out-door 
relief, probably receiving occasionally food and clothing from the 
officials, but never educated, and never kindly sheltered in a home. 
She became the mother of a long race of criminals and paupers, and 
her progeny has cursed the county ever since. The county records 
show two hundred of her descendants who have been criminals. In 
one single generation of her unhappy line there were twenty chil- 
dren ; of these, three died in infancy, and seventeen survived to 
maturity. Of the seventeen, nine served in the State prisons for 
high crimes an aggregate term of fifty years, while the others were 
frequent inmates of jails and penitentiaries and almshouses ! Of 
the nine hundred descendants, through six generations, from this 
unhappy girl who was left on the village streets and abandoned in 
her childhood, a great number have been idiots, imbeciles, drunk- 
ards, lunatics, paupers, and prostitutes ; but two hundred of the 
more vigorous are on record as criminals. This neglected little 
child has thus cost the county authorities, in the effects she has 
transmitted, hundreds of thousands of dollars in the expense and 
care of criminals and paupers, beside the untold damage she has 
inflicted on property and public morals. When we think of the 
multitude of wretched beings she has left upon the earth ; of the 
suffering, degradation, ignorance, and crime that one child has thus 
transmitted ; of the evil she has caused to thousands of innocent 
families,, and the loss to the community, we can all feebly appre- 
ciate the importance to the public of the care and education of a 
single pauper child." Any comment, evolving a teaching from the 
case of this unhappy girl, for the care and education of our super- 



27 

latiyely helpless and exposed defectives, is needless. It conveys its 
own moral ; and we should feel that any amplification for the bene- 
fit of the legislators of New Jersey would be an insult to their 
understanding and an imputation upon their enlightenment and 
humanity. 

RESPECTING TRUSTEES, ETC. 

If the legislature should conclude to act favorably upon the 
recommendations of the commissioners, and to authorize the erec- 
tion of one or more institutions, it is respectfully suggested that, in 
conformity with the method that has been pursued and found to be 
advantageous in other States, a board of trustees should be appointed 
for each, two of whom should raside in the county wherein the 
institution is located, and a majority within a- conveniently accessi- 
ble distance of the same. In other States, it has also been found 
convenient and advantageous to divide the original trustees into 
three equal classes, to serve for two, four, and six years respectively, 
and to provide for filling the vacancies as they occur, by other 
trustees for the term of six years. By this means, the State will 
secure in the trustees, the presence of a majority who will be expe- 
rienced in the duties and responsibilities of their position, and 
familiar with the details of their several institutions. Provision 
should also be made disallowing trustees to be pecuniarily interested 
in any contracts for buildings pertaining to the institution or institu- 
tions, or in furnishing supplies therefor ; requiring the treasurer of 
the board of trustees to give suitable bonds ; and empowering the 
trustees to appoint a competent superintendent, and other instructors 
and officers. Finally, it is suggested that the said trustees, or a 
special commission, be charged with the duty of drafting a law, to 
be submitted to a subsequent legislature, to cover all the necessities 
of the case with relation to the several institutions, and the admis- 
sion of pupils thereto. Or, should the legislature prefer to perfect 
a law at the present session, we respectfully refer them to the act 
of the State of New York, entitled " An act defining the objects of 
the New York State Institution for the Blind," as a wise and com- 
prehensive basis from which to frame a law that may be applied to 
all the defective classes. This act may be found, printed at length, 
in the report made to the legislature of 1874, by the commissioners 
on the deaf and dumb, blind, and feeble-minded, for that 3 r ear. 
Copies of that report can be supplied by the undersigned commis- 
sioners. 

SUMMARY. 

The commissioners, in conclusion, present a summary of the 
several recommendations they offer to the consideration of the 
legislature for its action. 



23 

1. That the legislature accept the tract gratuitously offered to the 
State by the city of New Brunswick, as a site for an institution for 
the deaf and dumb ; and that it take such action as will enable the 
people of that city to carry their generous proffer into effect. 

2. That as soon as the present objects of the " Soldiers' Children's 
Home" shall have been accomplished, and its existence shall have 
terminated, the legislature apply the grounds and buildings apper- 
taining to it to the uses of an institution for the blind, in conformity 
with the plans herewith submitted. 

3. That the legislature appropriate the sum of $18,b00 for the 
purchase of the property at Bordentown, hereinbefore described, 
for the purposes of an institution for the feeble-minded. 

4. That the legislature examine into the advisability and legality 
of an appropriation of the notes of the Central Railroad of New 
Jersey, herein more particularly described, now in the hands of the 
Riparian Commissioners, or so much of the proceeds thereof as may 
be necessary, for the erection of an institution for the deaf and 
dumb, and for an institution for the feeble-minded ; and that, if the 
same may be legally done, the legislature enact a law applying the 
said notes, or so much of their proceeds as may be needed, for the 
erection of said institutions. 

5. That the legislature appoint, or provide for the appointment 
of, a board of trustees for each of the institutions to be so estab- 
lished ; and take steps for the drafting of a law to cover all the 
necessary provisions for the conduct, management, and control of 
said institutions, and regulate the admission of pupils thereto. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 
Yours very truly, 

Charles D. Deshler, 
Jeremiah Baker, 
William S. Yard, 
Charles D. Hendrickson, 
Eldridge Mix, 
Ralph P. Gowdt, 

Commissioners. 

February 10th, 1875. 



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